Thursday, September 13, 2012

Like a lot of folks in I.T. I've been pounding the pavement
looking for a steady paycheck for awhile now.
So just like all the other millions of job seekers out there I have
profiles on all the job boards, apply to daily listings and have a list of
recruiters as long as my arm.

Of course with the wheat always comes the chaff. In this case it comes in the form of what I
like to call "the resume stacker".
Resume stackers are recruiters usually from employment firms who gain
clients by first shot gunning a potential opening (note the word 'potential')to
a group of candidates gleaned from sites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder. They utilize tools like resume scrapers to
grab keywords so the job they're pushing usually has nothing to do with your
skills.

Hey, the more the merrier right? At least someone thinks I'm
qualified!

Except that's not what's going on. These "stackers" are just trying to
collect resumes that they will in turn use to woo a client that may or may not
have a real opening. In the meantime the
"stacker" will put the potential candidate through all the machinations
of a job application but offer little to no communication afterward.

Now I'm not saying ALL recruiters are bad, on the contrary
some are genuinely interested in helping you but the guys who resume stack have
a much higher profile and are the ones you're most likely to run into.

My skills lie primarily in the arena of Windows System
administration and server support in smaller organizations. So opportunities in that context are always
of interest to me. So why is that I get
UNIX/AIX administration, Software coding and RF Microwave engineer?

It's the scraper again.
It's indiscriminate and completely autonomous. The Unix jobs? because somewhere in my resume
I may have had to reboot a Linux box once.
The software coding? because I used a scripting tool for Windows
Administration once. The RF Microwave
engineer? I have no idea, maybe the
scraper thinks Wi-Fi is done with Microwaves.

I get a lot of these, mostly from out of state firms that might as well be telemarketers. They usually have strange names like Masood and Kailash. Not only have they completely missed the
target with jobs I'm not remotely qualified for but when you look at the pay
rate you know they have no clue about what the local market will bear for the
ones that do match.

For example, I recently had one of these stackers send me a
listing for a technical support position.
Aside from technical requirements I didn't meet the position was priced
way above market rates. A high hourly
wage is a hook designed to snag your resume.
Don't fall for it, remember what they say about a deal that seems too
good to be true. Remember it's not about
you it's about the guy who sent the email.

After awhile I get annoyed with these guys filling up my
inbox with broken promises so I try to get rid of them. Experience has taught me that these pitchmen
will never do anything for me anyway so why not blow off a little steam. Who knows? Maybe it'll make them switch to a
more honorable profession like used car sales.

What follows is an email transcript from one of my
interactions with a particularly pesky "stacker" who likes to fill my
inbox with garbage. Names and contact
info have been removed to protect the stupid...

(This is about
$6/hr over the top end of the market, never happen here)

Job Description:

Responsibilities

Resolve customer reported issues
while working closely with the Engineering, SE and other cross functional teams
and provide feedback to the Engineering for improving the product quality and
reliability
Ensure that the work performed meets the quality within acceptable time
schedules and meets the customer commitments while working with the Technical
Support team members and management, Engineering and other cross functional
teams
Ensure that customers are treated with highest degree of respect and drive
operational excellence through quality closures and proper escalation of issues
Work closely with ...blah blah blah....
Willing to work evenings and/or weekends blah blah blah.... calmness and composure.

3. What are your strengths and weaknesses when interacting with customers?

Strength, know how to turn off phone ringer, weakness, forgetting to
turn it off...

4. Do you consider yourself a team player and why?

F*** teams, just a way to become chief scapegoat for morons...

5. Tell me about a time that you helped resolve a particularly difficult
customer issue.

I went to their desk and made them cry

6. Technical Support is a fast paced environment – you will be constantly busy
and may often work concurrent transactions. Explain/share how your previous
experience has prepared you for this type of work pace.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Change never comes without cost and it's usually exacted by
chipping away at our comfort zone. Like
some tortured victim of Stockholm syndrome we'll irrationally rise up against any threat to our
routines.

So the coming release of Windows 8 might as well be a new
red scare to many tech industry bigwigs and pundits.

It continued with rumblings from industry pundits over
changes to the way we'll be interacting with the Windows 8 interface. From removal of the startbutton to optimizations for touch sensitive devices that irritatedindustry press it seems those
"in the know" are of mixedopinion at best.

It doesn't matter.

Think of all the convoluted keyboard shortcuts and
permutations of pointing devices and it becomes obvious that we've hated our
interaction with computers for years. If
the experience was ideal we wouldn't be trying to minimize it with ergonomic gimmickry.

Chances are pretty good that most of you have a Smartphone,
tablet or both and you've become accustomed to getting your stuff with a tap or
a swipe. For many it's preferable. So is it any surprise that Microsoft thinks
you want to do the same on your desktop?

If Microsoft is guilty of anything, it's of being a bit
early to the party. If touch interfaces
weren't popular Apple would never have bothered with the IPAD and Microsoft
wouldn't be getting into tablets in a big way with Windows RT and Surface.

The way you work with your PC today will be very different
from how you use it just 10 years from now.
That may sound like futurist prophesying but consumer preferences
eventually permeate the workplace.

Consumers have voted
for touch with their wallets, just take a look at IPAD sales for proof. They will come to expect it in all their
digital interactions even if it involves a little pain at first.

That means touch on your desktop is in your future and
you'll learn to like it, even if you don't know it yet.